Tasting - "Flora & Stone" - Merlot

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing swell!

In this tasting, I tried the Merlot by Flora & Stone. This bottle is a product of the United States and hails from the Mendocino County region of California. This particular bottle is a medium bodied, non-vintage, a product of ALDI Inc., and contains the primary grape being the Merlot grape variety. This bottle was available at ALDI for only $6.99.

 

Cheapwinefinder.com summarized that this wine was "far better than a non-vintage $6.99 budget supermarket wine would lead you to believe." Going on to state the flavors from the tasting include "black cherry, a splash of black pepper, sour cranberry, and sweet raspberry." Furthermore, the critic describes the wine as "jammy upfront with a more rustic mid-palate." The critic enjoyed the wine for it's price point and believed the Merlot to be bold with interesting flavors and smooth (Dave).

Referencing the wonderful book "Wine Folly" by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack, Merlot's typically have flavors including cherry, plum, chocolate, dried herbs, and vanilla. Seeing page 131, Merlot is known for it's boisterous black cherry flavors and smoky or chocolate finishes. Merlot is more of an upper-medium bodied red with low sweetness, higher tannin and medium acidity. Merlot grapes are grown all over the world. From Australia, Chile, and the United States to Bulgaria, Romania, Italy Spain and Moldova with the majority grown in Bordeaux, France. 

With a swirl I saw distinctive legs and with the first smell, cherry and fig aroma wafted towards me with a hint of vanilla. These coming as the primary and tertiary aromas/flavors of this Merlot, see page 132 of "Wine Folly." 

 My tasting revealed wonderful flavors of a cherry flavor upfront that coated my mouth. The light acidity was a great touch and the aftertaste revealed a nice spicy vanilla flavor. Tasting with Gouda cheese unleashed a fruitier flavor to the wine that made the experience even more enjoyable! Highly recommend this wine as it is delicious for it's price point and is readily available at your local ALDI.

Thank you everyone and have a splendid week! Will be back with the next wine I taste!

References:

Dave, Domaine. “Flora and Stone Merlot in 2021 | CheapWineFinder.” Cheap Wine Finder, 2 Aug. 2021, cheapwinefinder.com/flora-and-stone-merlot-in-2021/08/2021/. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.

 

Tasting - "[yellow tail]" - Pinot Noir

Hello everyone! Hope you are all doing swell!

In this tasting, I chose to try the Pinot Noir from [yellow tail]. This bottle is a product of Australia and hails from the southeast in the Yenda winery. The Yenda winery is located in the southeast region of New South Wales, Australia. This particular bottle is vintage 2023 and contains a the primary grape being the Pinot Noir grape variety. This bottle was available at Kroger for only $7.99. 

 

Christina Pickard of the "WineEnthusiast" website, gave this bottle, I'll be it, vintage 2022, a rating of 85. What this means is the wine is "Good" and " Suitable for everyday consumption, often good value." Furthermore, she explained that "There's lots of minty oak showing at first sniff" and that the "palate is mid-weight with some juicy red fruit." She was unable to uncover the underlying raspberry, plum fruit, and spice beneath the oak scent, and elaborated that "the oak is on display [in the first sip], particularly on the tongue-drying tannin's (“Yellow Tail 2022 Pinot Noir (South Eastern Australia).”).

Referencing the wonderful book "Wine Folly" by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack, was very helpful during the tasting for identifying the flavors and aromas of the Pinot Noir. 

First, following pages 27 and 28, the wine had a pale ruby shade and looked quite light for a red wine. On page 206, the Victoria Pinot Noir from southeast Australia, is a medium red. Visually, this wine looked so and on first sniff following the tips on page 28, I could make out what I had thought was raspberry or cherry. This might mean I was picking up more of the tertiary aromas from the oak barrels the wine was aged in. I also though I smelled a hint of vanilla which is an aspect of Pinot Noir's explained on page 150 of "Wine Folly." 

Following the tips and tricks on page 32 in "Wine Folly," the first sip showed that the wine was slightly sweet. The wine has light acidity to me with no discernible large amount of tannin. This would make sense given on page 19, Pinot Noir's are typically ranked low in tannin content. The aftertaste seemd to have a cocoa flavor to it and earth-like finish. Pinot Noir's supposedly have the secondary flavor of truffle and cocoa, see page 150 of "Wine Folly." Although I am not an expert in truffle flavor, I could taste an earth-like finish with a nice amount of cocoa.

Tasting this wine with Gouda cheese gave the wine a much fruitier flavor upfront and brought out creaminess in the cheese. I would highly recommend pairing this Pinot Noir with Gouda in the future although next time, I want to pair this wine with smoked Gouda and jam!

Thank you everyone and have a splendid week! Will be back with the next wine I taste, should be a Merlot!

References: 

“Yellow Tail 2022 Pinot Noir (South Eastern Australia).” Wine Enthusiast, 20 Feb. 2024, www.wineenthusiast.com/buying-guide/yellow-tail-2022-pinot-noir-south-eastern-australia/?queryID=8dfc56baad2a3c28ac7b2bb2f323b543&objectID=wine#438337&indexName=PROD_WINEENTHUSIAST_REVIEWS. Accessed 30 Jan. 2025.

Daniel's First Blog - Welcome to Geography of Wine Spring 2025!

 Hello Everyone!

My name is Daniel and I will be posting blogs about my various wine experiences throughout my Spring semester in the Geography of Wine course!

This is my last semester in college! It has been a wild ride through my time in University but looking forward to finishing out with a lot of empty wine bottles! 

 My previous experiences with wine includes trying sips at the dinner table from my parents glasses. I hated the taste at the time and did not begin appreciating wine until I was 16 years old. My parents took my sister and I on a trip to Italy. We traveled from Rome to Tuscany and Cinque Terre. We visited amazing sites including The Vatican, Florence, Pisa, Monterosso Al Mare and Levanto. All the way, trying delicious foods, wines, and cheeses. This started my appreciation for the deliciously aged grape juice. 

However, while in college, I can't say I've had the most respectable wine. Early on, I had everything from $2.99 bottles to boxed wines without much regard for flavor. That did begin to change as traveled abroad to Europe! I was able to experience delicious beers in Amsterdam, Sweden, and Copenhagen. Once my studying was over, a group of friends and me traveled to Barcelona for a week where we indulged in the amazing food, desserts, wines, seafood, port wines etc. etc. etc. 

This unforgettable experience for my taste buds it what has driven me to try and experience more wine in this course! But not only experience more wine, learn how to appreciate the ancient beverage on a new level! 

So, for this course this will be where I post my wine tasting, food or cheese paring experiences. I hope we'll see how I progress from an amateur to someone slightly less amateur. I look forward to exploring more of the aroma, flavor, vine characteristics, and history of wine!

Thank you for reading and wish me luck!

Daniel